Mediocines
The Mediocines are sentient extremophile organisms from the planet Mediocinia who had become mebers of the Gauss Dominion Originally feral creatures, Mediocines bore a hunting structure similar to wolves. Workers would utilize their speed and strategy and warriors their strength to bring down prey animals on the Mediocine home world. Unlike most species which saw a gradual rise to intelligence the Mediocine’s was an extremely sudden mutation causing them to ascend from canine levels of intelligence to levels beyond those of any other sentient species in the GD. Mediocines were classified into three primary castes, though there was a fourth caste that was rarely seen. Biological Traits Enlarged Brain (Worker and Queen Caste Only). Mediocines’ brain grew outside of their skull and extending down and backward across their body, typically making up more than half their body by weight and using half their body’s energy. This head spike was refered to as their Tebeku, an adopted Go’shii word for the ‘tails’ that grew from their heads. On the Worker and Queen caste the Mediocine would develop gills on the inside of their Tebeku which functioned as an additional lung refreshing blood closer to the brain and making up for the mediocre size of their chest cavity. This brain and surrounding skin was made of a rubbery flesh which made it very resistant to impacts and it was encased in muscles which engaged unconsciously keeping the brain from dangling to either side when the Mediocine would sit or lay down. Semi Hive Mind Mediocines operated on a quasi-hive mind. Each individual still had fidelity over their own actions but they could be influenced or communicate with the auras of others. The hive mind was controlled by the nearest queen. This hive mind operates on a seperate frequency to standard psionics and magic and is very difficult to tap into without being a mediocine oneself or somehow hijacking or tapping into their hive mind through being one of their own kind or possessing their brain. The exact mechanism by which the hive mind functions is a closely guarded secret; though it is in fact understood by the mediocines, but never spoken of and only shared through brain footprinting. yet it does appear to function across interstellar distances. The communication time does not degrade with distance but the exact influence does. This means for the hive mind to have full influence a queen must be within close proximity to nearby Mediocines. Blindness Because Mediocines were native to a cave-world which had very little natural light; Mediocines were born blind. They could navigate their environment through ultrasonic sonar, scent, and their quasi hive mind. The Mediocines did have sealed ocular cavities which never developed into eyes and vestigial optic nerves. In order to function in normal dominion society in where a large amount of information was relayed optically, with very few exceptions all Mediocines were augmented shortly after birth with a device called a Monocle. Though variations in design did exist, the most common one was a single electronic eye in the middle of the head. Due to the Mediocine’s brain being underdeveloped for optical processing depth perception was not necessary and most Mediocines were only capable of perceiving the world through the monocular. Moreso the Monocles would only perceive things in a single spectrum of the EM frequency at a time to further ease the burden on their visual cortex. Common variants of the Monocle enabled manual adjustment of this frequency by rotating the knob in which the eye was set. (Generally Monocles with a round eye had manual adjustment and ones with a square eye had automatic, thought controlled adjustment.) The exact design varied based upon the Mediocine’s Beta Queen and to an extent their personal preference. The Monocole also altered their hearing enabling them to be less distracted by extremely loud or quiet sounds. Predatory Jaw The Mediocine’s mouth and Jaw are their most prominent biological trait after their massive brain. Their mouths were full of razor sharp pointed teeth that grew in erratically. These teeth allowed the mediocines to consume the notoriously chewy flesh of the Urblich and Khykezeki. Their jaws could also unhinge to allow massive amounts of food to be consumed in a single bite. Their rubbery flesh enabled their gullet and ribcage to stretch and their stomach to distend considerably. Even modestly-sized worker caste mediocines could comfortably consume a dozen liters worth of volume in a single feeding session. Their teeth also contained an extremely potent and corrosive neurotoxin venom that was almost always lethal, which was injected through a sub-millimeter wide hole in the point of the tooth when the Mediocine fully engaged their bite. Often, when employing a bite attack, some teeth would come loose and stick in the target, continuing to inject venom like a bee-stinger. New teeth would grow back in their place. Quadripedal/Bipedal Stability Mediocines were able to run on all fours as easily as they could stand upright, and gained a considerable speed advantage in doing so, outpacing all but the quickest members of other species. Toxic Blood Mediocine blood contained slow-acting and hard to detect toxins. These toxins could be treated if flushed from the body shortly after absorbed but were notorious under one specific set of circumstances. When fighting on planets and facing heavy casualties, Mediocine toxic blood would leech into the ground. The slow acting toxins would cause a greatly increased rate of birth defects, mental disabilities, cancer, and other health problems, which would only show themselves to those who inhabited the area for decades, after the damage had been done. They could make their way into groundwater or up the food chain concentrated animals hunted/fished by the natives. Clearing these toxins from the soil of planets was an extremely expensive and difficult process as the only way of doing so was exposing the soil to extremely high temperatures causing the toxins to break down. Onboard ships and orbital this was generally not a large issue as without porous soil or deep layers of terrain cleanup was much easier and the exposure time was short enough such that no serious damage would not be done. Radiation Resistance Mediocines are naturally resistant to gamma radiation, due to their subsurface caverns on their homeworld being full of radioactive minerals. This by no means meant they were fully immune to radiation but their cells were far more resilient when damaged by radiation than other species. In general, Mediocines could tolerate levels of radiation about 25x higher than most other beings. Fullbirthing and Brain Footprinting. Mediocine queens birth fully-formed worker-caste mediocines. As an added bonus the mediocines are given what is known as a brain footprint from the queen, as in while being formed in the queen’s gestation tube. Mediocine queens have an organ known as a gestation tube. It is basically a multi stage womb used to grow new mediocines. It has twelve chambers each one holding a Mediocine at a different stage of development. About twelve times per day this womb cycles, pushing each unborn mediocine out of their current chamber and into the next. The first eleven chambers concern various phases of physical development, while the twelfth and final chamber concerns brain footprinting. During this process a sort of umbilical cord is formed to the brain of the unbirthed mediocine and it links to its queen’s brain. As the unbirthed worker’s brain is just a fairly random array of neurons; however when linked to the queen, and given the right cocktail of hormones and chemicals they begin to format themselves into an imperfect copy of the queen’s brain. This is also the phase in where the delegation of the hive mind is implanted into the Mediocine, and the Mediocine is parented to their soon-to-be-mother. This process is mentally taxing for the queen and its success is dependent upon her effort. Because of this, birthing queens can often be heard mumbling or reciting the information out loud they are passing into the mind of their next kin. This process allows the queen to not only implant information but to an extent, determine the personality and character of who she births as she structures their mind. However not all of the information comes directly from the queen herself, but the acting Beta and Alpha queen will unconsciously influence, to a small degree the behavior and personality traits of the Mediocine which is birthed. However, even the most physically gifted, rested and focused queen will only transfer partial fragments of their knowledge to their young. Regardless, even non-ideal instances of this process can greatly expedite the Mediocine’s learning once they have been birthed, as language, etiquette and most importantly, complex technical or scientific data can be implanted subconsciously into the brain. This does mean the Mediocine must undergo some learning to unlock the information they were born with, as the information may be fragmented or incorrect due to the imperfect nature of the process. They may emerge fully able to speak seventy to ninety percent of the words needed to function normally within hours of birth, but require supplementary education (often lasting six months to five years years depending upon the quality of the brain footprint and the intellectual demands individual’s intentioned role) in order to fill in the gaps in their knowledge. This is often equal parts education, correcting faulty information that incorrectly transferred and filling in missing elements, as well as unlocking intuitive information which is just below the conscious levels of the brain. That being said this ability, coupled with the fact that Mediocine worker castes are born fully physically formed (although a little pink in color, their skin will become a thick leathery substance sometimes covered in warts or cellulite) though imperfect greatly expedites the time it takes for a Mediocine worker to be brought into the force. It should be noted that the birthing process was a highly conscious choice by the queens. Each time their gestation tube cycled, they could consciously decide whether to advance a fertilized embryo into the first phase. However once the embryo was in the first phase of development it became unconscious. Queens would often mediate this cycle to their own comfort, choosing to birth on every second cycle or every third to reduce the strain on themselves and to compensate for however much food their overseers were able to provide them with on that particular day. Castes Worker The worker caste made up the Majority of Mediocine Society; being the small Mediocines of which most are familiar with. Though deviants exist in every culture a majority of worker caste mediocines could be described as having somewhat childlike personalities. Though incredibly proficient with math, science, and engineering they often lacked basic social skills, making them prone to fighting amongst one another, refusing to do work unless fed first, or getting into discussions about pointless topics. Worker caste Mediocines were also known to be rather cowardly in dangerous situations, as they would frequently hiss threateningly and hide in small spaces or run away. Often having a Gamma Queen or higher present to orchestrate the pseudo-hive mind served to lessen the Mediocines’ many vices and keep them more subservient. Worker Caste Mediocines were technically agendered and asexual though almost all of them identified as male and used male pronouns. Warrior Warrior Caste Mediocines were far larger and exchanged much of their brains for brawn, triggered into a phase of growth by the conscious order of their queen they would undergo a ‘puberty’ into a warrior caste. In doing so they would develop genitals, lose most of their brain mass and intelligence but their body would grow far larger. Their venom would grow more potent and their fangs and claws larger, and portions of their body would be covered in tough, callused skin. Warrior caste Mediocines could outclass all but peak humans in terms of strength, speed and endurance. For the most part, Warrior Caste mediocines were not particularly bright. Though they were genetically programmed to be violent and enjoy fighting. They had low self-preservation instincts and felt no pain or fear, but were rather unruly as soldiers, particularly in lulls between combat and were prone to fighting amongst one another pointlessly when not given something else to do. As such they were often given manual labor jobs that would usually be taken up by robots when not in combat to keep them subservient and well-worked. The presence of a queen nearby made the Warrior Caste less unruly and fight more ferociously, driven by hormonal urges to impress their queen for the slim chance they might be presented with the opportunity to ascend to overseer caste and mate. Overseer Overseers were very rarely utilized and little is known about them, but they served as a bishop or personal guard to a queen. They were said to have lost all personal free will, becoming wholly, an extension of the queen’s hive mind. They were said to be used rarely to extend a queen's psionic influence, and acted as a very powerful psionic node which could interface with other species psionically, even going so far as to assault their minds and attempt to overload them with psionic energy if so commanded by their quee Overseers were said to be very tall, roughly 3-4 meters and have very long gangly limbs, large claws and teeth. If they did not have a monocle their eyes would actually be open. (Mediocine eyes are pure-black.) They could spit acidic venom from a gland in the back of their throats. These beings were often employed as personal aides to the queen, protecting her from unwanted prospective mates (which they could turn away all but the most determined of which simply with their psionic influence, and the remainder they would kill, and the queen would later eat.) Likewise they were also responsible for providing fresh genetic material to the queen should her supply of fertilized embryos run dry, as well as ensuring that she was amply fed. If the Overseers failed in their duty to provide ample nourishment the Overseers would be eaten by the queen, forced by psionic willpower into complying. Overseers would sometimes directly command their own entourage of worker or warrior caste mediocines through their own psionic influence, though they were still subservient to the queen. Overseer caste mediocines were technically male and bore male genitalia and as such would be addressed with male pronouns. For unknown reasons to the outside world, overseers would rarely be taken outside of mediocine only spaces, and only those highly versed in mediocine biology and social structure knew that. Queen The highest mediocine form; the queen. When a group of mediocines were far enough from the psionic hive-mind of the nearest queen, a new queen would be selected from amongst them at random and would begin the physical and mental transformation into the queen. This meant a massive growth spurt into a slug-like body focused solely on bearing young, with queens able to bear several young each day. mediocine young were born fully formed (if a bit pink in color) and the Queen would pass on a portion of her knowledge and brain structure (Imperfectly) to her newborn. This was why mediocines often had very good knowledge of technology as only supplementary education was needed to reinforce their fractured but useful innate knowledge. Mediocine Queens were most prone to having distinctive personalities which would often reflect through the hive mind connection to their subordinates to a degree. Queens existed in three Tiers, Alpha, Beta and Gamma. The Alpha Queen was the highest queen of the Mediocines, sometimes referred to as a high queen. Psionic pseudo-hive influence would trickle down, being lessened at each level. As such the Beta queens would often reflect the reigning Alpha-Queen to a degree in their personality and actions. The Gamma queens would reflect the mentality of the Beta and to a lesser, more subconscious extent the Alpha, and all subjects of the Gamma would reflect their own gamma the most, the Beta the second most and the Alpha the third most. The Present high Queen; Knogg was known to be the most comedic of the Mediocine queens ever known, and relatively laid back. This was likely why many mediocines acted somewhat comically and were prone to joking, while their Beta and Gamma queens as well as their unique personalities influenced them into being subservient and useful to their intended roles. This had actually had actually increased the productivity and accident frequency of the collective as the positive psionic influence of the current queen greatly increased morale but her comical influence led to a number of rather humorous accidents, some of which she subconsciously orchestrated herself simply for her own enjoyment. Caste Mobility It was possible for a worker to directly promote into a warrior, overseer or queen. It was possible for a warrior to promote to an overseer, but only in the instance where he had successfully mated with a bishop. The hive-mind also plays a crucial role in Mediocines developing past worker caste. As all Mediocines are born as fully formed worker castes. However the acting queen can trigger a cocktail of hormones to be released in where a selected worker caste can be ordered to grow into a warrior or overseer caste. This growth/transition can take about three months for a worker caste and six months for an overseer in where they will require adequate nourishment to fuel their body’s metamorphosis into its new form. She may trigger this before the Mediocine is even born causing them to immediately on birth as a worker caste begin the transition to a warrior or overseer caste, often footprinting relevant knowledge into their mind as well. If the transition were to happen later in life, the Mediocine worker would often be verbally informed, often by an overseer or the queen herself, though sometimes they would simply get a “feeling” that they had been chosen and begin to recognize the obvious signs of their body changing and growing. Being chosen to ascend to warrior caste, in queens concerned with non-military matters was seen as highly prestigious as it meant one would have the opportunity to mate. Being chosen to ascend to Overseer caste, an even higher honor, though many were terrified of the prospect of their queen selecting them to become an Overseer as it meant that one would lose their individuality and free will. Once this transition had begun, it was impossible for a worker caste to change course or revert to a worker caste. Queen Promotion Becoming a queen was a slightly more complex process. In order for a queen to be chosen a Mediocine queen would identify an already living or birth a worker caste, and then require the approval of the beta queen overseeing within the psionic hive mind. With their psionic abilities combined the beta and gamma would trigger the releasing of the correct hormones to trigger that worker into becoming a bishop and developing the female reproductive organs. When the bishop was created the Beta Queen, would through a psionic broadcast inform other warrior caste Mediocines to come from all Gamma queens (except the Gamma Queen overseeing the Mediocine bishop) to compete for the opportunity to mate with the bishop. Often, by way of the psionic hive mind, anywhere around 25 to 150 prospective mates, depending upon the number of interested sutors and size of the beta population, would be selected, the psionic broadcast having a vague self adjusting property to compensate for this. The Mediocines would be driven into a fanatical frenzy by the hormones given off by the fertile bishop, killing one another for the opportunity to mate. The only surviving warrior, seen as the most fertile would then mate with the fertile bishop. The fertile bishop would then begin to consume the corpses of all the deceased warrior castes over the course of the next few days, which would trigger their growth into the large slug like body characteristic of queens and provide an ample initial stockpile of biomass for which to start producing her first young. The victorious warrior caste would ceremonially be promoted to that queen’s first overseer caste, who would often be gifted a higher degree of free will than most other overseers and the title of “Prime Overseer”. Typically the newly appointed queen would be overseen by her siblings and parent for the first few years of her rule, getting influence from them and obeying the orders of more senior beta queens. However as time passed the queen would gradually be granted more autonomy and seniority in her jurisdiction of her burgeoning pack. Prefixes Queens were often given prefixes based upon their seniority and rank within the structure. Newly appointed queens would be given the title of “lesser” ex. Lesser Gamma Queen. Later rising in the ranks and dropping the “lesser” prefix, then acquiring a “greater” prefix. This would also be applicable to beta queens who in addition to lesser, greater and median beta queens would have a “Beta Prime” queen who was seen as next in line for the position of alpha queen. Often there would be several beta queens who would acquire further prefixes of “Second Beta Prime”, “Third Beta Prime”, etc, denoting the line of succession and who was applicable to become the alpha queen. Prefixes were also applicable to Overseers, as the prime overseer was the overseer to originally mate with the queen when she was still a bishop. There could also be lesser or greater overseers who could possess authority over one another depending upon the queens’ discretion. High Queen Promotion Rising to the rank of beta queen entailed no physical transformation, a simple change in the hive mind structuring. Often a gamma queen which had been the mother of several bishops who had risen to successful queens would be noticed by the present beta queens for her influence within the hive mind. At this point she would often discontinue active birthing, in an effort to extend her lifespan by reducing the strain on her body and therefore extend her lifespan and useful time in her command position. (Aside from this there was no formal point in where the role of a gamma queen ended and a beta queen began.) Very rarely, queens would decide to resume birthing. In this instance they would Promotion to the alpha queen was often quite similar, but only occured when the former alpha queen died. The standing beta queens would elect a senior member to rise to the role of alpha queen, sometimes called the high queen. Similar to rising to the level of beta queen this entailed no physical transformation but a simple relocation within the hive mind. Pack Sizes: A Gamma queen typically gave birth to 5-6 Mediocines per day during active birthing, though could double that with considerable strain to her body. Since queens could be in service as long as a century. There came a point where a single Gamma queen would no longer be able to effectively control her pack through the hive mind. The Beta and Alpha queens could also assert certain doctrines within the hive mind which influenced how many members of the various castes were produced and if new queens were needed. The typical pack size was generally: 1 Gamma Queen 1 Prime Overseer 5 Overseers 50 Warrior Castes under the prime overseer 100 Worker Castes under the prime overseer 25 Warrior Castes per lesser overseer (125 total) 50 Worker Castes under the prime overseer. (250 total) 250 Warrior Castes under control of the queen. 2,500 Worker castes under control of the queen. Any pack that was larger than this was typically subject to selecting a new queen. Similar to this each Beta Queen oversaw about 3,000 Gamma Queens. Though the Alpha queen held a unique position in that the number of Beta Queens beneath her could expand indefinitely. However this was not cut and dry. Some queens, either by orders of their superiors, personal choice or need would intentionally keep their pack small. Others (sometimes in times of war) would devote themselves solely into birthing warriors and overseers non-stop, leading them to have a pack of hundreds of overseers and hundreds of thousands of warrior caste Mediocines. Queen Death and Feral Mediocines Queens often died due to old age or other factors. What would occur next varied heavily depending upon the queen’s position. If the queen was a Gamma Queen, her pack would be freed from the hive mind. This was where the Mediocine’s autonomy came into play. Worker caste Mediocines often retained their intelligence and personal autonomy could choose to reconnect themselves back into the hive mind by subscribing to the rule of a gamma queen that was a child, sibling or parent if they were readily available, or could choose to go free. Those that chose this option were often ousted from Mediocine society at large but allowed to go free without tribulation, though they would seldom be accepted back into the hive mind if they decided to come back. The Queen’s overseers would often commit suicide or very rarely, in a trance-like state, attempt to subscribe to the hive mind influence of a closely related queen upon which they would often be rejected and killed by the queen’s own warriors and overseers. However what was rather famous, and a closely guarded secret of the Mediocines was that upon the death of a queen, the Mediocines in her pack had a high chance of becoming feral. They would become animalistic and sometimes attempt to select a new queen. This could create a new hive mind of non-sentient, animalistic medicines with its own hierarchy of queens which would not respond to the primary hive mind. Seen as a threat, sibling and child queens of the recently deceased queen would dispatch their own overseers and warriors to kill the ferals and return their bodies to them, whereupon they would be consumed. The same would happen for the queen’s body itself, of which the overseers of several queens would often compete for and kill one another in an effort to acquire the deceased queen’s body and bring it back to their parent queen. Becoming feral was a prospect often faced to Mediocines that were more subject to the hive mind and as such the number of Mediocines which became feral was often determined by how much influence their deceased gamma queen had exerted over them. Food Sources Mediocines had a rather strange diet. On their homeworld they would hunt creatures called a Khykezeki, a spider-like creature that dwelled in deep caves; coming in several breeds that ranged in size and levels of aggression and danger. Before their sudden rise to intelligence, attempting to hunt these creatures often meant the death of many members of the pack. They would also feed on Urbliches. Large creatures resembling a worm or maggot that fed on microorganisms. These creatures were relatively easy prey for skilled Mediocines but because of the cave-like environment of the Mediocine homeworld and the Urblich’s smaller size they could crawl into cracks or small holes to avoid Mediocines. Modern Mediocines could feed off of insect diets, diets of mushrooms and various fungal growths or more commonly Luminecent Gemicrose. This plant was a coral-like growth that grew in a hexagonal crystal formation. Microgranisims would feed off of ambient radioactive decay and short-wave radio, photosynthesizing these energies as plants to sunlight and producing crystals of sugar and nutrients high in caloric value. Luminescent Gemicrose came in three varieties, green, blue and pruple. With green being the most common and having a tart flavor, blue being less common and having a sweet, fruity flavor, and pruple being the rarest, having a bitter flavor. Gemicrose wasn’t suitable as a dietary staple for most other organisms as the high sugar and low nutrient concentration would cause nutritional deficiencies in other races, making it only suitable as a dessert item, however Mediocines who needed only basic sugars in large quantities to run their oversize brains functioned fine on a diet of mostly Gemicrose, with the minimal nutrients supplying the rest of their biological needs. Most would supplement their diet with the occasional Urblich in order to maintain peak physical and mental capacity. Mediocines were also very prone to eating their own dead. Frequently dead would be offered to the queen as she could convert the dead’s biomass directly into newborn Mediocines. When a queen died, the pack would eat her before a new queen was chosen in the hierarchy. Mediocine queens were highly cannibalistic. Not only would they orchestrate the killing of Ferals only such that they themselves could consume them, but they would consume expired members of their own pack, re-absorbing rare molecules and precious nutrients to reform them into new members. Typically Mediocine queens would develop heightened senses able to sense if a corpse was laden with a disease, parasite or poisonous substance and that upon consuming it they would inherit said toxin. In times of starvation, the Queen would consume members of her own pack to sustain herself as the queen was the most important member of the pack. Role in Dominion Society Although there are deviants in every race of Dominion society, the mediocines generally formed the secret backbone of the Dominion. Being native to a cave-planet they generally lived deep underground in massive cities, farming Luminescent Gemicrose and Urbliches, developing and testing new technologies, mining without disturbing the surface of ecologically rich worlds and managing aspects the Dominion’s finances, government, Galactic Net, and maintaining various utilities such as power, water, waste disposal and military installations. They often navigate vast underground networks small tunnels, too small for human-sized beings to even fit into; which stretch many miles into planets’ crusts. Few are aware of just how many mediocines there actually are, with them outnumbering all of the Dominion’s other races combined. They also run vast sections of the military. Entire fleets of ships are crewed by only warrior caste mediocines with gammas and beta queens in charge, and the overwhelming numbers of warrior caste shock troopers form the biggest percentage of the GD’s organic infantry. Due to their familiarity and ease with technology, many Mediocines were prone to choosing to become Cies upon approaching death, or often sooner, many choosing to contribute their intellectual abilities to Sacodias. Category:Aliens